Holyoke process for reviewing police chief candidates will take at least until June

The Republican | David MolnarHolyoke Police Chief Anthony Scott, shown here during the city's St. Patrick's Parade on March 20, is retiring April 30.

HOLYOKE – The city has received 40 applications for police chief and increasingly demanding reviews will reduce that to three to five finalists by June, officials said.

“I’m very pleased that the quality (of applicants) looks very good,” said consultant Stephen H. Unsworth, director of BadgeQuest, of West Yarmouth.

At a public meeting that the mayor’s police chief search committee held Monday, Unsworth said he has 32 years of police experience, including 11 as former chief of the Waltham Police Department.

The city is paying BadgeQuest up to $14,000 in a contract that includes services that might not be needed, committee Chairman Joseph M. McGiverin said.

Police Chief Anthony R. Scott, who has been chief since 2001, is retiring April 30. His yearly salary is $133,164.

The goal is to refer chief finalists to Mayor Elaine A. Pluta by late June, McGiverin said. Under the city charter the mayor has sole authority to hire the police chief.

The timing means that when Scott leaves an interim chief will have to be appointed.

The committee limited its search for chief candidates to New England and New York.

In the first reduction, the committee and Unsworth will cut the field of 40 to 15. Those 15 will be required to complete detailed questionnaires about their backgrounds, including credit and academic histories, Unsworth said.

Another review will cut the list to eight to 10, followed by a narrowing of the field to five or six candidates, he said.

Those five to six will be placed into a process called an assessment center. Candidates in that process are judged on role-playing exercises that replicate challenges a chief would face, such as dealing with a citizen’s issue or an officer’s problem or addressing the public, he said.